Friday, July 14, 2017

Blast Off With The Original BUCK ROGERS... In 1977

I remember seeing this newspaper ad "slick" in the pages of Starlog (Issue #10 or #11, I think), and it was my very first glimpse of the original Buck Rogers serial. Riding both the Star Wars sci-fi juggernaut and the general wave of pop culture nostalgia prevalent in the 70s, opportunistic independent film distributor Crystal Pictures licensed the 1939 Universal Buck Rogers chapterplay starring Buster Crabbe and made it available to revival theaters and college campuses.

I have no idea how successful this theatrical campaign was, but within a year, Universal had begun work on their own Buck Rogers revival, which eventually led to the 1979 TV pilot/theatrical film and subsequent television series.

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The BBC, forever aware of a good deal, snapped up many of these old b&w serials after the success of STAR WARS and - as a junior Star Warrior - I was treated to the likes of BUCK ROGERS, FLASH GORDON, KING OF THE ROCKET MEN, UNDERSEA KINGDOM etc. They were clunky. They were unlikely. They weren't Star Wars... but my imagination filled in the gaps and I found them as much fun as their more glossy - and modern - rivals. Yay for the BBC.

One of the local New York City stations (don't recall now if it was WPIX or WOR) used to show the Buck Rogers serial from time to time during the late sixties and early seventies. This led to Buster Crabbe doing regional ads on NY stations.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

This blog is dedicated to the science fiction films and television series of the 1970s - give or take a few years (say, 1969-1983) - including such nostalgic favorites as Star Wars, Space: 1999, UFO, Space Academy, the original Battlestar Galactica, Jason of Star Command, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Logan's Run and many others.

But be warned: I still love these productions with all the enthusiasm I held for them as a kid, and they will be treated here with affection and respect. If you're looking for someone to snarkily denigrate "old" movies - or like to do that yourself - you've come to the wrong site.

So journey with us back to the days when special effects were created by skillful hands and spaceships were detailed models, when robots were obligatory comedy relief, when square-jawed heroes and cloaked villains battled among the stars -- and the future was fun!

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ABOUT ME

Christopher Mills is a professional writer of comic books and short fiction in a variety of genres, as well as a DVD reviewer for several pop culture websites. His taste in entertainment clearly peaked when he was about 15, which certainly explains his embarrassing obsession with James Bond, hardboiled crime fiction, comic books, paperback pulps, space opera, Universal/Hammer/Toho Monsters, sword & sorcery sagas, old genre TV shows and vintage B-movies.

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Reviewing genre DVDs Since 2005

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